Security Source: Iraqi Forces Discover Explosives in Saudi Aids Sent to Fallujah People

Informed security sources disclosed that the Iraqi forces have discovered explosive devices among Saudi Arabia’s alleged aid cargoes for refugees of the city of Fallujah in Anbar province.

“The Iraqi security forces have come across raw materials and substances that are the base for the production of highly explosive substances,” the Arabic-language media quoted an unnamed informed security source as saying.

The source noted that there is a relationship between the dispatch of explosive devices and a recent agreement between Saudi Arabia and the ISIL.

Such attempts by Saudi Arabia come at a time when the ISIL is losing the ground in Anbar province, specially Fallujah city, to the Iraqi joint forces.

Earlier on Sunday, a senior Iraqi military commander announced that the Iraqi army has captured a large number of ISIL terrorists who were disguising as ordinary people and hiding among civilian refugees to flee from the city of Fallujah.

“Our forces have taken 543 ISIL terrorists who were trying to flee Fallujah under the cover of refugees,” Deputy Commander of Fallujah Liberation Operations Major General Hadi Razich said.

He reiterated that the captured people are notorious for numerous crimes they have committed so far.

Also on Sunday, the Iraqi government troops continued their advances in the Southern part of the city of Fallujah, and seized back two strategic regions after heavy clashes with the ISIL Takfiri terrorists.

“Al-Falahat and al-Sabihat region in the Southern part of Fallujah city are now under the control of our forces,” Anbar Operations’ Commander announced.

Meantime, the commander of Iraqi Federal Police Major General Raed Shaker Judat said that a dozen ISIL terrorists were killed in the clashes over al-Falahat and al-Sabihat regions.

The military vehicles of the terrorists were also destroyed in the army’s offensive.

On Saturday, military sources announced that the Iraqi army and tribal forces have started fresh operations to win back two strategic regions in the Western part of the city of Fallujah.

He noted that the Iraqi tribal forces will help the army to conduct its large-scale operations in Western Fallujah.

Earlier on Saturday, Iraq’s joint forces managed to break the defense lines of the ISIL in Southern Fallujah, and killed the Takfiri terrorist group’s religious judge in the Southern part of Salahuddin province.

ISIL’s religious judge, Jassem Mohammad Sarhan al-Shablavi, was killed in an Iraqi air raid in al-Jomhouriya region in the Southern part of Salahuddin province, battlefield sources announced.

The Iraqi army also took control of the ISIL’s defense lines in Southern Fallujah.

The Iraqi government troops also continued their advances in Jabil region in Southern Fallujah on Saturday.

On Thursday, battlefield sources announced that the Takfiri terrorists in Fallujah city were surrounded from the Northern, Eastern and Southern directions.

“A large-scale operation to retake the city will resume imminently,” the sources added.

Asked by FNA of reasons for the Iraqi forces’ slow advance in Fallujah operations, a field source said that the ISIL has planted hundreds of booby-trapped bombs around the city to slow down the Iraqi army and is using the Fallujah residents as its human shield.

“Therefore, the Iraqi army should take precaution to lower the death toll among its forces and the civilians,” the source added.

The source also said that the ISIL has also forced the Fallujah residents, including women and children, to pick up arms and help the terrorist group in the war against the Iraqi forces.

Local sources confirmed that 3,000 families have fled the Iraqi province of Anbar as the offensive against ISIL continues to deal severe blows to the terrorists.

The sources said since the beginning of the victorious operations by the Iraqi forces for the liberation of the city of Fallujah (60 km Northwest of Baghdad), Iraqi citizens have been able to run away from the areas where they had spent years living under a blockade, hunger and terror since January 2014.

Ismail al-Issawy, a management member of the central hospital in Fallujah, said that 1,500 families have fled the city center and about 500 families left Zobaa village, all headed towards the Iraqi army and local voluntary troops positions in Anbar province.